Run the Jewels have described the power of protest in the wake of the one-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. The rap duo, who have been vocal during the #BlackLivesMatter movement, said that the riots were instrumental in enforcing change in the US.
“I’m an American because of a riot,” Killer Mike told the BBC. “So, when people say ‘riots don’t work,’ well, Ferguson was over 60% a black community. They had less than 60% representation in politics. Post-riots, they have two new black city council members. They have actual advocates in the community now. The police chief retired. So, if it was argued that riots worked in Ferguson, abso-fucking-lutely they did.”
Run the Jewels also described “the weird, tragic and serendipitous experience” of entering St Louis during the Ferguson verdict in 2014, when “everyone else was driving as fast as they could to get out of [the city]”.
Audience-shot footage of their show there went viral, as an emotional Killer Mike quoted Martin Luther King, Jr and expressed fears for his children’s future during the performance.
El-P told the BBC: “Every word that you’re saying all of a sudden means 100 times more than it meant the night before. To see my friend talk, I was crying onstage. It was very powerful,” El-P told the BBC.
The past year, Killer Mike has established himself as an influential speaker on US race relations. He has since stated his desire to run as a state representative in Georgia, has appeared on CNN and has hosted a number of university lectures in the wake of police brutality in the US.
